| “ | Computers may be affected from the inside by a programming glitch, a "bug" so to speak...the human brain is a computer as well, albeit one made of flesh and blood. And as such, it is also afflicted by a "bug" of its own known as "malice". Violence, envy and all other destructive desires can be traced back to this programming glitch. | „ |
| ~ Faceas Clay explains his vision to Hiryu |
| “ | Are we humans just "defective goods" from God? We have to be resolute in completing the work that God left unfinished. | „ |
| ~ Faceas Clay about humanity's "violent cells" |
Faceas Clay is an antagonist from the Strider series, appearing as a major enemy in the 1988 manga and its videogame adaptation for the NES. He is the amoral president of the large corporation "Enterprise".
History[]
Faceas Clay has been the president of Enterprise for at least the last 50 years. Having a complete distrust of humans and a desire to help them "evolve", Faceas Clay has financed the ZAIN Project for several years and kept a close eye on its development while keeping the project a complete secret to the outside world. Clay's ultimate plan is to use the project's mind control abilities in order to "reboot" humanity and remove their main flaw, "malice", so he'd be able to lead them into a new "Golden Millenium" with no wars and the equal distribution of wealth.
He makes his first appearance in the manga during Chapter 3, where he's seen on an international video conference with the Kazakh Institute Director. They discuss the latest advances in the ZAIN Project, a new form of ZAIN implant that foregoes surgical injection, as well as the recent attack of the Striders Hiryu and Cain to their allies in Kazakh's Secret Police.
Hiryu eventually confronts the man at the top floor of the skyscraper that serves as Enterprise's headquarters in Los Angeles. Faceas Clay explains his vision to Hiryu about the perfect world he's seeking to create and offers him being part of it, but upon his negative he takes action. Clay uses the ZAIN Defense System to trap Hiryu in an illusion where he's attacked by the Hindu Goddess Kali, but Hiryu finally sees through the deception and destroys the machine. Clay is shocked to the core that Hiryu managed to survive, and can only watch helpless as Hiryu rushes at him and pierces him through with his Cypher, killing him on the spot.
NES Adaptation[]
His goals in the NES videogame are presumably the same as the manga. Faceas Clay is first mentioned in a disk recording where Matic tells him that his own personal unit will protect the ZAIN Terminal in Africa.
After hearing about a meeting between Matic and Clay in Los Angeles, Hiryu heads there and enters the company's headquarters. Finding a transport tube linking the place with the Striders' HQ, Hiryu finally finds Clay in a chamber within, protected by a tempered glass shield. Despite Clay boasting that the glass shield is unbreakable by human hand, he is shocked when Hiryu easily breaks through. Hiryu then kills the man and retrieves a key he needed to proceed.
Appearance[]
Faceas Clay is a stout, pale-skinned man with light-colored hair (brown with white accents in the video game) and a sharp, v-shaped mustache.
He wears a dark-colored business suit, shown to be dark blue in the video game version.
Personality[]
Faceas Clay is ruthless, amoral and a corrupt bussinessman. He's convinced humanity is hopeless, thinking of them as a "defective product" left behind by God, and the ZAIN Project is his means of correcting that mistake. Clay has a very low opinion of humans, thinking that they are inherently evil and the malice in their hearts is the cause of all its ills, and distruts them so much that his chamber at the top of the skyscraper has no human guards, instead being guarded only by machines.
Clay has an obssession with technology and sees everything through it: he compares humans with defective computers and their malice as programming bugs, and thinks by mind-controlling all of humanity he'll be able to "debug" them and through his guidance ensure their evolution. He believes his ambition is rightful and justified for the betterment of humanity, and when confronted by all the innocent lives that were lost in his pursuit, he brushes them off as needed sacrifices to achieve "his revolution". He even thinks he's taking God's place by doing this in order to "complete God's unfinished work".
Faceas Clay is also a very charismatic leader and president, and has gained complete loyalty from his followers in the company, with both Secretary Yuri and the Kazakh Institute Director almost maniacally praising his vision and willingly dying for it.
Trivia[]
- "Faceas Clay" is a very literal translation of the katakana forming his name (フェイサス・クレイ), which makes for a very odd and unnatural name. There are ways to render his name more coherently, with the fan-made translation of the manga using Faysus Clay instead.
- He's the only character in the manga who is given a last name. His initials "F.C." are believed chosen on purpose as a reference to the Family Computer, the Japanese NES console the game was planned to be released on before cancellation.
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 Villains
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Strider Hiryu (1988 manga) & NES adaptation Strider (1989) Strider 2 Strider (2014) Organizations | ||